Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Reflecting a bold new mission, culture and focus on fairness
We got to know the Foundation inside and out to ensure their brand communicated their passion and mission in a way that includes and inspires their grant recipients.
What we did
- Brand audit, strategy and identity
- Content strategy
- Usability testing
- Website design and build
A brand to match an ambitious organisation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation have built a reputation for working with the individuals and organisations they fund to build long-term, supportive and equitable relationships. This focus on enabling their grantees’ missions runs through the whole organisation.
Their visual identity didn’t reflect the warmth and support inherent in the organisation or how it operated and created a disconnect between the organisation and how it was branded.
By spending time getting to know a range of prospective grantees’ needs and speaking to existing stakeholders to understand the Foundation’s process, we were able to build the brand out to connect the two points of view – through both language and visuals.
Through co-creation, testing and iterating with the team, we created a new shared language for articulating their mission. The new visual toolkit builds on their existing recognition and reputation to help communicate their offer to the people who need to hear it most.
Brand audit
We began the project by working with the team to understand their current brand challenges in conjunction with a brand audit that scored against their specific mission and communications objectives that we had created together.
The co-created brand objectives were:
equity by design
a digital-ready brand
a joyful brand that embodies outcomes
expanding the identity to celebrate diverse voices
serious doesn’t have to be solemn
William Joseph put their values at the heart of everything they do.
Holly Donagh, Director of Strategic Learning, Insight & Influence, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Embedding strategy into the brand
Through a series of workshops, we worked with the PHF team to bring their strategy to life in a more personable and human way. By breaking down their strategy into different steps, we were able to guide them through a co-writing process to allow them to communicate better with their audiences and use shared language to engage them better.
Designing a new voice
We brought their boldness, warmth and respected reputation to life with a set of carefully chosen typefaces. These allow their message and tone to shift according to the audiences they needed to speak to most – from people working in communities who are passionate about their mission, all the way through to the boardroom.
William Joseph were an exceptional agency to work with from beginning to end. They added such expertise and calm to the project which resulted in a website and brand we are proud of.
Olivia Smith, Head of Communications, Paul Hamlyn Foundation
An energetic visual toolkit
With the brand leveraging their ‘PHF’ logo and centring a bolder tone of voice, we created a supporting set of elements that inject energy and joy back into the brand. A new colour palette, a set of background textures, inclusive photography guidelines and a bespoke icon set gives the refreshed brand lots of flexibility while still remaining accessible and recognisable.
A new website that serves both users and the brand
The website was created alongside the new brand to ensure accessibility was built-in from the ground up. Making best use of the digital-first brand was key – being sure to marry rigorous user testing and usability with the Foundation’s new emboldened visuals and tone of voice.
27%
Improvement on bounce rate since launch
15%
More engagement with content
Fund finding
The Foundation has worked hard to create a series of funds that are named using the language of people looking for support, rather than internally facing titles. These funds are displayed prominently, along with the most important information for applicants such as the amount of money awarded, the duration of the fund and when people can apply.
In addition a fund finder was created, which asked a series of simple questions to find the get people to the best suited fund for them. These tools can often be annoying and a barrier for people looking for support, however this tool has quickly shown its usefulness in getting people to the right information faster.
Fund page
People who are looking for support from foundations are usually busy, working multiple jobs and looking for extremely specific words that they know will mean there’s a fit between a funder and their work. The fund pages are written to rapidly help people understand whether they’re in the right place or not so that their valuable time is not wasted.
Case studies
For many of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s audiences, case studies are some of the most important content. They help people looking for money to understand if there’s a good fit and they help the Foundation’s partners see the impact that they have.
The Case Studies on the website have been designed with these audiences in mind and are led by the voices of people who are driving change in their communities.